Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of EducationOntario. Department of Education
Science
Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of Education
Ontario. Department of Education
Education; Educational psychology
=Uses of Term: A. Subjective; B. Objective.=--That the educator
describes interest as something that causes the mind to give attention
to what is before it, when in fact interest and attention are
psychologically merely two sides of a single process, is accounted for
by the fact that the term "interest" may be used with two quite
different meanings. Psychologically, interest is evidently a feeling
state, that is, it represents a phase of consciousness. My _interest_ in
football, for instance, represents the _feeling_ of worth which
accompanies attention to such experiences. In this sense interest and
attention are but two sides of the single experience, interest
representing the feeling, and attention the effort side of the
experience. As thus applied, the term interest is said to be used
subjectively. More, often, however, the term is applied rather to the
thing toward which the mind directs its attention, the object being said
to possess interest for the person. In this sense the rattle is said to
have interest for the babe; baseball, for the young boy; and the latest
fashions, for the young lady. Since the interest is here assumed to
reside in the object, it seems reasonable to say that our attention is
attracted through interest, that is, through an interesting
presentation. As thus applied, the term interest is said to be used
objectively.
=Types of Objective Interest.=--The interest which various objects and
occupations thus possess for the mind may be of two somewhat different
types. In some cases the object possesses a direct, or intrinsic,
interest for the mind. The young child, for instance, is spontaneously
attracted to bright colours, the boy to stories of adventure, and the
sentimental youth or maiden to the romance. In the case of any such
direct interests, however, the feeling with which the mind contemplates
the object may transfer itself at least partly to other objects
associated more or less closely with the direct object of interest. It
is thus that the child becomes interested in the cup from which his food
is taken, and the lover in the lap dog which his fair one fondles. As
opposed to the _direct interest_ which an object may have for the mind,
this transferred type is known as _indirect interest_.
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